How do you PRO's handle this

So i get a drive by "Hey can you swing by my house after your done" from a buddy of mines neighborhood. I am prepping his yard for overseeding, so I tell him i can come back tomorrow. I show up at a predermined time (owner knew) and there is a note on the door asking me to call him if I get done before he gets home from lunch and a PS "please bag the backyard." get my gear ready and head to the back and there is DOG POOP all over the yard. I have driven 25 minutes for just this one yard. I charged him a little extra but next time i think I will just walk. This is a side job for me. How do you PRO's handle situations like this?

Not being critical here, but why did you charge extra for dog poop on the lawn? Did you pick it all up or something? I'm not asking that with any attitude, I'm just honestly curious.
I'd say do it or don't. If it's an inconvenience, which I could totally understand, just tell him you're not interested in doing the lawn or it's not going to work for your route or something.Posted via Mobile Device

Oh dear, I can see right away you most likely have not been through certain indoctrination courses where folks learn how to best deal with things such as dog feces "hands on," and this could well be problematic. Normally I'd break it down myself but I'm an old man now and I have been through so much, the grey hair situation seems to be improving little by the day so I'm thinking it would probably be best I let the younger crowd tackle this.

Not being critical here, but why did you charge extra for dog poop on the lawn? Did you pick it all up or something? I'm not asking that with any attitude, I'm just honestly curious.
I'd say do it or don't. If it's an inconvenience, which I could totally understand, just tell him you're not interested in doing the lawn or it's not going to work for your route or something.Posted via Mobile Device

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Ever had the experience of hitting a poop pile near a fence line with your trimmer? You best be wearing glasses and also a face mask would help too... The extra charge is nowhere enough for that.

Domestic animals have a meat based diet vs. plant based. Do you wanna guess why you don't want to track that around into your truck then to your home carpet (where maybe your baby crawls) etc.?

The only reason I ask is that he mentioned nothing about bagging when we visited. I am not in the dog poop gathering business. Do you guys take the bagged grass or do you leave by the customers trash can? I have made the decision to leave the grass with the customer. Guess I can be more picky since this is a side business. Thanks for the input. New to the site and really enjoying the info. Stay Green!

So i get a drive by "Hey can you swing by my house after your done" from a buddy of mines neighborhood. I am prepping his yard for overseeding, so I tell him i can come back tomorrow. I show up at a predermined time (owner knew) and there is a note on the door asking me to call him if I get done before he gets home from lunch and a PS "please bag the backyard." get my gear ready and head to the back and there is DOG POOP all over the yard. I have driven 25 minutes for just this one yard. I charged him a little extra but next time i think I will just walk. This is a side job for me. How do you PRO's handle situations like this?

Thanks,
Chris

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We don't have time for one-time mowings. I'm not being arrogant. We honestly don't have time for that. All 5 of our crews are already busy 40-43 hours a week with their pre-set routes. I'm not going to take a crew off their route, give them overtime, just to make a couple bucks. Not even worth our time. In that case, we would just tell someone we have a minimum service call of $150.00 and that will usually scare them away. Now, if they want a quote for regular weekly service, that's another thing. We'd be glad to meet them in person, go over the property, give them a detailed quote, talk about service, etc. But only in person and only if they are wanting regular service. Those one time $25-$50 jobbies??? No. You do that and you're losing money and you don't even realize it.

We don't have time for one-time mowings. I'm not being arrogant. We honestly don't have time for that. All 5 of our crews are already busy 40-43 hours a week with their pre-set routes. I'm not going to take a crew off their route, give them overtime, just to make a couple bucks. Not even worth our time. In that case, we would just tell someone we have a minimum service call of $150.00 and that will usually scare them away. Now, if they want a quote for regular weekly service, that's another thing. We'd be glad to meet them in person, go over the property, give them a detailed quote, talk about service, etc. But only in person and only if they are wanting regular service. Those one time $25-$50 jobbies??? No. You do that and you're losing money and you don't even realize it.

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This is 100 % right. I stopped doing one time mowings years ago and I'm an owner operator with one crew.

Ever had the experience of hitting a poop pile near a fence line with your trimmer? You best be wearing glasses and also a face mask would help too... The extra charge is nowhere enough for that.

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I am sure this sounds crazy but I don't go looking for piles to hit.
With the trimmer...

Matter of fact I make sure not to hit them, I'm having a hard time envisioning you hitting them on purpose but I do recall a year when my level of experience wasn't high enough to keep the feces out of my face...

It sucks but the OP volunteered, as some might recall the thread started with...
"Hey can you swing by my house after your done" from a buddy of mine...
The man asked, the OP agreed.

So you're probably just going to have to use this as a learning experience.
Don't go hitting things with the trimmer, piles of poop might be on the list.
On another note, now you know why I ALWAYS go look at the WHOLE job before quoting an estimate.

Domestic animals have a meat based diet vs. plant based. Do you wanna guess why you don't want to track that around into your truck then to your home carpet (where maybe your baby crawls) etc.?

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That might be why I would clean it up first, then mow, then trim.
There is also no requirement to have your domestic animals on a meat based diet.
And wouldn't you know, the poop of animals whose diet is mostly plant based smells less.
But what do I know, I'm just the lawn guy.